Greetings.
For veterans, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton wishes to honor three fundamental commitments: every member of the armed forces shall receive a fair shot at the American dream when their service is finished, every veteran in America will have healthcare, and every veteran will receive the benefits they have earned and the assistance they need—right from the start. To allow members of the armed forces to receive their shot at the American dream, Clinton promotes enacting a GI Bill of Rights for the 21st Century to offer service members, veterans and their families with expanded education, housing and entrepreneurial benefits. She wants this bill to fund undergraduate education for service members, as well as education for specialized trade or technical training, and certification and licensing programs. She also wants to expand the Veterans’ Affairs Home Loan Guaranty program to allow veterans to use low-interest, no-fee loans to purchase, build or improve a home. Clinton also promotes giving veterans access to the VA’s excellent and cost-effective healthcare system to all veterans who seek to enroll and wishes to provide coverage through the American Health Choices Plan to all veterans who choose not to use the VA system. Adding to this, Clinton is committed to getting a fair, accurate, and timely decision for veterans filing a disability claim. She wants to increase the number of qualified VA evaluators to reduce the backlog of claims and provide fast-track training for new claims specialists and expand the Benefits at Discharge Program to smooth the transition from service to discharge for all those who serve.
Much like Clinton, Democratic candidate Barack Obama is committed to creating a 21st century Department of Veterans’ Affairs. He wishes to strength VA care and make it a leader of national healthcare reform so that veterans can get the best care possible. He wants to fully fund the VA so it has all the resources it needs to serve the veterans who need it, when they need it. By creating a world-class VA Planning Division, Obama hopes to avoid future budget shortfalls. Obama also promotes the improvement of mental health care at every stage of military service, by recruiting more health professionals, improving screenings, offering more support to families and making PTSD benefits claims fairer. Along with healthcare, Obama supports establishing a national “zero tolerance” policy for veterans falling into homelessness by expanding proven programs and launching innovative services to prevent this.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain also supports providing for service member and their families while they service and helping them adjust to civilian life. Due to how the role of reservists has changed over the last decade, McCain supports legislation to expand retirement benefits for them such as provisions to expand eligibility for healthcare benefits for them and their families or grant survivor benefit payments to the spouses of reservists who die during or as the result of training. McCain also supports expanding VA’s funding so that it receives all that is necessary to serve veterans. He proposes giving higher pay to VA doctors in order to recruit and retain high quality physicians and dentists. McCain also wishes to ensure that veterans with service-connected disabilities can receive the retirement benefits that they have earned, as well as the disability compensation benefits they are entitled to. He wants to have veterans have their disability claims processed in a timely manner, working with the VA to rectify its huge backlog of claims and providing additional resources for that purpose. To allow veterans to receive both disability and retirement, McCain supports repealing the ban on receiving both of them at the same time. McCain also is a strong supporter of educational and job counseling programs to help veterans get civilian employment. He also strongly supports the Troops-To-Teachers Act, a program to train veterans to become teachers. He also supports extending unemployment and vocational training benefits for veterans.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Patrick McCain on the Economy
Greetings.
Wofford Senior Patrick McCain was kind enough to give short interviews on his thoughts about the Economy.
Wofford Senior Patrick McCain was kind enough to give short interviews on his thoughts about the Economy.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Platform Seven: Economics
Greetings.
Democratic candidate Barack Obama wants to restore fairness to the tax code and provide relief by creating a new “Making Work Pay” tax credit of up to $500 per person, or $1000 per working family to offset the payroll tax they pay. Also concerned with taxes, Obama promotes the dramatic simplification tax filing so that Americans will be able to do their taxes in less than five minutes. Obama wishes to ensure that the IRS uses the information it already gets from banks and employers to give taxpayers the option of pre-filled tax forms to verify, sign and return. Obama also encourages the deployment of the most modern communications infrastructure to reduce the costs of health care, help solve the energy crisis, create new jobs, and fuel economical growth. In doing this, Obama wants to make long-term investments in education, training, and workforce development so that Americans can leverage our strengths—ingenuity and entrepreneurialism—to create new high-wage jobs. Obama also promotes the strengthening the ability of workers to organize by ensuring workers’ freedom to unionize, but also promotes raising the minimum wage to allow full-time workers earn enough to raise their families and pay basic needs.
The Republican candidate John McCain starts by promoting helping American confront higher living costs. He believes the high gasoline price is hurting Americans and hence want to create a summer gas tax holiday from Memorial Day to Labor Day. To help the middle class, McCain wants to permanently repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax—a tax that will be paid nearly exclusively by middle class families. McCain also supports keeping tax rates low by maintaining the current income and investment tax rates and fight any plans for a tax increases. Keeping taxes low on dividends and capital gains also promotes saving, channel investment dollars to innovative, high-value uses and not wasteful financial planning. McCain also proposes to allow corporations to deduct the cost of equipment investment, providing a valuable pro-growth investment incentive. The senator also wishes to lower Medicare premiums and also has proposed comprehensive, pro-market health care and Medicare reforms to reduce health care costs. The health care reform also will reduce the growth in Medicare spending, protect seniors against rising premiums and preserve the advancements in medical science center to providing quality care. He also supports supplementing the current Social Security system with personal accounts.
The other Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, addresses the rising income inequality. She supports a return to shared prosperity and tax fairness, while expanding access to quality education and healthcare for all. To do this, Clinton wants to first level the playing field and reduce special breaks for big corporations. Clinton wishes to eliminate incentives for American companies to ship jobs and profits overseas. She believes the current policy puts companies that create jobs in America at a competitive disadvantage and she wants to pursue tax policies that reward the decision to create jobs in America. Clinton wants to give every young person an opportunity to attend college, increasing support for community colleges and alternative schools. To do this, she wants to make college more affordable so that students of all backgrounds can attend, and hence expanding regional skills alliances and other job training programs to ensure workers have the valuable skills they need. Clinton also promotes helping working people earn enough to support their families and save for the future by simplifying and expanding the EITC, overhauling the unemployment insurance system, and making it easier for workers to join unions. Clinton also wishes to make investments necessary for creating new jobs.
Democratic candidate Barack Obama wants to restore fairness to the tax code and provide relief by creating a new “Making Work Pay” tax credit of up to $500 per person, or $1000 per working family to offset the payroll tax they pay. Also concerned with taxes, Obama promotes the dramatic simplification tax filing so that Americans will be able to do their taxes in less than five minutes. Obama wishes to ensure that the IRS uses the information it already gets from banks and employers to give taxpayers the option of pre-filled tax forms to verify, sign and return. Obama also encourages the deployment of the most modern communications infrastructure to reduce the costs of health care, help solve the energy crisis, create new jobs, and fuel economical growth. In doing this, Obama wants to make long-term investments in education, training, and workforce development so that Americans can leverage our strengths—ingenuity and entrepreneurialism—to create new high-wage jobs. Obama also promotes the strengthening the ability of workers to organize by ensuring workers’ freedom to unionize, but also promotes raising the minimum wage to allow full-time workers earn enough to raise their families and pay basic needs.
The Republican candidate John McCain starts by promoting helping American confront higher living costs. He believes the high gasoline price is hurting Americans and hence want to create a summer gas tax holiday from Memorial Day to Labor Day. To help the middle class, McCain wants to permanently repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax—a tax that will be paid nearly exclusively by middle class families. McCain also supports keeping tax rates low by maintaining the current income and investment tax rates and fight any plans for a tax increases. Keeping taxes low on dividends and capital gains also promotes saving, channel investment dollars to innovative, high-value uses and not wasteful financial planning. McCain also proposes to allow corporations to deduct the cost of equipment investment, providing a valuable pro-growth investment incentive. The senator also wishes to lower Medicare premiums and also has proposed comprehensive, pro-market health care and Medicare reforms to reduce health care costs. The health care reform also will reduce the growth in Medicare spending, protect seniors against rising premiums and preserve the advancements in medical science center to providing quality care. He also supports supplementing the current Social Security system with personal accounts.
The other Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, addresses the rising income inequality. She supports a return to shared prosperity and tax fairness, while expanding access to quality education and healthcare for all. To do this, Clinton wants to first level the playing field and reduce special breaks for big corporations. Clinton wishes to eliminate incentives for American companies to ship jobs and profits overseas. She believes the current policy puts companies that create jobs in America at a competitive disadvantage and she wants to pursue tax policies that reward the decision to create jobs in America. Clinton wants to give every young person an opportunity to attend college, increasing support for community colleges and alternative schools. To do this, she wants to make college more affordable so that students of all backgrounds can attend, and hence expanding regional skills alliances and other job training programs to ensure workers have the valuable skills they need. Clinton also promotes helping working people earn enough to support their families and save for the future by simplifying and expanding the EITC, overhauling the unemployment insurance system, and making it easier for workers to join unions. Clinton also wishes to make investments necessary for creating new jobs.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Patrick McCain on the Environment
Greetings.
Wofford Senior Patrick McCain was kind enough to give short interviews on his thoughts about the Environment.
Wofford Senior Patrick McCain was kind enough to give short interviews on his thoughts about the Environment.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Platform Six: Environment
Greetings.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton wish to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050 and also cut foreign oil imports by two-thirds from 2030 projected levels. To assist in the cutting of foreign oil imports and through knowing that transportation accounts for 70 percent of US oil consumption, Clinton wants to increase fuel efficiency standards to 55 miles per gallon by 2030, and $20 billion of “Green Vehicle Bonds” to help US automakers retool their plants to meet the standards. She also supports a $50 billion Strategic Energy Fund, paid for in part by oil companies, to fund investments in alternative energy. Clinton also promotes an aggressive comprehensive energy efficiency agenda to reduce electicity consumption by changing the ways utilities do business.
The other Democratic candidate, Barack Obama also supports the reduction of carbon emissions by 80 percent of the 1990 levels by 2050. To also help with greenhouse gas emissions, Obama wants to develop domestic incentives that reward forest owners, farmers and ranchers when they plant trees, restore grasslands, or undertake farming practices that capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Much like Clinton, Obama wishes to double fuel economy standards by retooling tax credits and loan guarantees for domestic auto plants and parts manufacturers. Along with these, Obama wants to invest in a skilled clean technologies workforce and help workers and industries adapt to clean technology development and production. Obama wants to establish a federal investment program to help manufacturing centers modernize and Americans learn the new skills they need to produce green products.
On the other side of the presidential race, Republican candidate John McCain feels committed to clean air and water, and to conserving open space. He feels that America has a duty to the resources upon which the quality of American life depends. McCain pushes the ensuring clean air, safe and healthy water, sustainable land use, and ample greenspace is a responsibility of Americans. He believes that ignoring the problems poses a serious and unacceptable threat to the environment, economy and national security. McCain wants to limit carbon emissions by harnessing market forces that will bring advanced technologies, such as nuclear energy, to the market faster, reduce our dependence on foreign supplies of energy.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton wish to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050 and also cut foreign oil imports by two-thirds from 2030 projected levels. To assist in the cutting of foreign oil imports and through knowing that transportation accounts for 70 percent of US oil consumption, Clinton wants to increase fuel efficiency standards to 55 miles per gallon by 2030, and $20 billion of “Green Vehicle Bonds” to help US automakers retool their plants to meet the standards. She also supports a $50 billion Strategic Energy Fund, paid for in part by oil companies, to fund investments in alternative energy. Clinton also promotes an aggressive comprehensive energy efficiency agenda to reduce electicity consumption by changing the ways utilities do business.
The other Democratic candidate, Barack Obama also supports the reduction of carbon emissions by 80 percent of the 1990 levels by 2050. To also help with greenhouse gas emissions, Obama wants to develop domestic incentives that reward forest owners, farmers and ranchers when they plant trees, restore grasslands, or undertake farming practices that capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Much like Clinton, Obama wishes to double fuel economy standards by retooling tax credits and loan guarantees for domestic auto plants and parts manufacturers. Along with these, Obama wants to invest in a skilled clean technologies workforce and help workers and industries adapt to clean technology development and production. Obama wants to establish a federal investment program to help manufacturing centers modernize and Americans learn the new skills they need to produce green products.
On the other side of the presidential race, Republican candidate John McCain feels committed to clean air and water, and to conserving open space. He feels that America has a duty to the resources upon which the quality of American life depends. McCain pushes the ensuring clean air, safe and healthy water, sustainable land use, and ample greenspace is a responsibility of Americans. He believes that ignoring the problems poses a serious and unacceptable threat to the environment, economy and national security. McCain wants to limit carbon emissions by harnessing market forces that will bring advanced technologies, such as nuclear energy, to the market faster, reduce our dependence on foreign supplies of energy.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Patrick McCain on Foreign Policy
Greetings.
Wofford Senior Patrick McCain was kind enough to give short interviews on his thoughts about Foreign Policy.
Wofford Senior Patrick McCain was kind enough to give short interviews on his thoughts about Foreign Policy.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Platform Five: National Security and Foreign Policy
Greetings
The problem that appears in looking at the foreign policy of the presidential candidates is not necessarily their stances on the platform, but more over the platform itself. I put this for the reason of attempting to not make John McCain look like a war-monger, as the information I have of his stance is on national defense and not simply foreign policy.
Speaking of John McCain, the Republican candidate’s national defense platform supports having a strong military in this dangerous world. He believes that the threat of terrorism, rogue states and potential strategic competitors require a larger and more capable military to protect America’s interests and deter threats to security. McCain also advocates the modernization of our forces to ensure that American maintains and expands its technological edge against potential adversaries. This advancement is not only in case of war, but also in fighting the war on terrorism, where McCain intends to ensure that America has the quality intelligence necessary to uncover plots before they take root. With the strengthen military, John McCain believes that the answer to these challenges is not to roll back our overseas commitments to support defense, but to expand the size of the military to defend against threats. He does not support the decision to use force lightly, only when the cause is just, and our nation’s values and interest absolutely demand it. Along with a strong military, John McCain supports the development of missile defense which he believes are critical to protect America from rogue regimes that possess the capability to target America with intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Following John McCain, Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy platform pushes that we much create global coalitions to tackle global problems such as climate change, poverty, AIDS, and terrorism. She also believes we must engage our enemies, though not necessarily approve or agree with them, but understand them, which is crucial to confronting the threats they pose. Clinton takes seriously the threats of terrorism and believes we must not be distracted by Iraq on waging the war on terror effectively, promising to be tough and smart in combating terrorism. She also supports Israel’s right to exist peacefully and defend its people against terrorism. Clinton has spoken out against Hamas’s rise to power in Palestine, the problem of anti-Semitism in Palestinian textbooks and Iran’s conference on the Holocaust. She also pushes to advance peace in Northern Ireland by maintaining close ties with Irish leaders and promoting business partnerships between Northern Ireland and the United States.
On the other side of the Democratic party, Barack Obama pushes for diplomacy for many world events. He supports direct presidential diplomacy with Iran without preconditions, asking them to abandon its nuclear program and remove its support for terrorism. Incentives for this would be membership in the World Trade Organization and a move toward normal diplomatic relations, while continuing in these behaviors Obama would increase our economic pressure and political isolation. Included in speaking with Iran, Obama supports starting talks with international leaders that may be foes, feeling we must rally international support for our leadership and draw on this support for the ranging challenges from terrorism to climate change. In the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Obama wishes to progress and work with the Israelis and Palestinians to achieve the goal of the two states, both an Israel and Palestinian state, living side by side in peace and security. Also, Obama supports strengthening the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and cracking down on countries that break the rules with strong international sanctions. Along with diplomacy, Obama also wishes to reduce the strain on our active force by increase the size of ground forces. He wishes to restore the readiness of the National Guard and Reserves, permitting them adequate time to train and rest between deployments, also planning to give the Guard a seat at the table by making the Chief of the National Guard a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The problem that appears in looking at the foreign policy of the presidential candidates is not necessarily their stances on the platform, but more over the platform itself. I put this for the reason of attempting to not make John McCain look like a war-monger, as the information I have of his stance is on national defense and not simply foreign policy.
Speaking of John McCain, the Republican candidate’s national defense platform supports having a strong military in this dangerous world. He believes that the threat of terrorism, rogue states and potential strategic competitors require a larger and more capable military to protect America’s interests and deter threats to security. McCain also advocates the modernization of our forces to ensure that American maintains and expands its technological edge against potential adversaries. This advancement is not only in case of war, but also in fighting the war on terrorism, where McCain intends to ensure that America has the quality intelligence necessary to uncover plots before they take root. With the strengthen military, John McCain believes that the answer to these challenges is not to roll back our overseas commitments to support defense, but to expand the size of the military to defend against threats. He does not support the decision to use force lightly, only when the cause is just, and our nation’s values and interest absolutely demand it. Along with a strong military, John McCain supports the development of missile defense which he believes are critical to protect America from rogue regimes that possess the capability to target America with intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Following John McCain, Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy platform pushes that we much create global coalitions to tackle global problems such as climate change, poverty, AIDS, and terrorism. She also believes we must engage our enemies, though not necessarily approve or agree with them, but understand them, which is crucial to confronting the threats they pose. Clinton takes seriously the threats of terrorism and believes we must not be distracted by Iraq on waging the war on terror effectively, promising to be tough and smart in combating terrorism. She also supports Israel’s right to exist peacefully and defend its people against terrorism. Clinton has spoken out against Hamas’s rise to power in Palestine, the problem of anti-Semitism in Palestinian textbooks and Iran’s conference on the Holocaust. She also pushes to advance peace in Northern Ireland by maintaining close ties with Irish leaders and promoting business partnerships between Northern Ireland and the United States.
On the other side of the Democratic party, Barack Obama pushes for diplomacy for many world events. He supports direct presidential diplomacy with Iran without preconditions, asking them to abandon its nuclear program and remove its support for terrorism. Incentives for this would be membership in the World Trade Organization and a move toward normal diplomatic relations, while continuing in these behaviors Obama would increase our economic pressure and political isolation. Included in speaking with Iran, Obama supports starting talks with international leaders that may be foes, feeling we must rally international support for our leadership and draw on this support for the ranging challenges from terrorism to climate change. In the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Obama wishes to progress and work with the Israelis and Palestinians to achieve the goal of the two states, both an Israel and Palestinian state, living side by side in peace and security. Also, Obama supports strengthening the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and cracking down on countries that break the rules with strong international sanctions. Along with diplomacy, Obama also wishes to reduce the strain on our active force by increase the size of ground forces. He wishes to restore the readiness of the National Guard and Reserves, permitting them adequate time to train and rest between deployments, also planning to give the Guard a seat at the table by making the Chief of the National Guard a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
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